Lack of Evidence

2011 - Film & Video (Film & Video)

9 min 20

Hayoun Kwon

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Lack of evidence is the account of a Nigerian called Oscar exiled in France, which confronts a historical and social reality with a personal and intimate testimony. Taking as a point of departure Oscar’s request for asylum in France, this fictional document is a peregrination on the different levels of the reconstitution of memory and the subjectivity of its interpretation. Oscar’s legal testimony reveals a dramatic reality taking place in Nigeria, where family executions still exist in the case of having twins who are considered a ‘diabolical off-spring’. Oscar’s request was rejected based on a lack of evidence. With the use of 3D, Kwon reassessed the real and fictitious qualities of Oscar’s story. The film is constructed through sequences juxtaposing different realities and then by becoming an ideal mise en abîme of the story. The image becomes an elastic characteristic memory and recalls the process of reconstitution. From another perspective, this film questions what constitutes proof and whether this artistic reconstitution of a traumatic event could be used as major evidence, whether art can have an “objective” dimension.

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Born in 1981 in Seoul, South Korea Lives and works in Paris and Nantes Hayoun Kwon was born in South Koera in 1981 and moved to France in 2011 to pursue her studies at the Nantes School of Art and Le Fresnoy, where she presented the video Lack of evidence for her final diploma. The complex relationship with her home country plays a leading role in her work and issues of immigration, political relations, national and extraterritorial laws are a consistent interest. To address these political questions, Kwon became very skilled in using animation, keeping a balance between a real and fictional register. She defines her videos as documentary animation.

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Colors:

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• reconstruction.n.03
• subjectivity.n.01
• evidence.n.03
• memory.n.02
• france.n.01
• fabricated.s.01
• monochrome